Can YOU tell the difference between the designer bag and the replica? We expose the fake luxury goods flooding Instagram | The Sun
“NEWLY arrived!” writes Candy on her Instagram post with a love heart emoji. “Small Nile bracelet bag. #newin #hotsale #trustseller.”
The photo shows six versions of Chloe’s popular handbag in different pastel colours. Officially, the designer suede and calfskin bag retails at £1,190. But on Candy’s Instagram, an identical-looking version complete with the embossed trademark logo is available for under a fifth of the price at $218 (£155).
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The genuine Chloe small Nile bracelet bag, left, retails for £1,190, while the designer dupe, right, is a fifth of the price at £155
Credit: Chloe/Instagram
Candy – whose Instagram was active at the time of writing – is one of the thousands of sellers who use the social media app to sell designer fakes. She has 1,419 followers on Instagram, and is known as a ‘trusted seller’ on RepLadies – a Reddit forum for women who regularly buy ‘replicas’ online.
It’s not immediately obvious the items on her page are fakes, until you see she uses the #RepLadies hashtag, and sells £270 Gucci belts for $60 (£43).
Some of the fakes are also amazing. They look just like the real thing – no ‘Guci’ errors here – with authentic-looking labels. While some of the more expensive replicas are also made of good quality materials, so they still get the leather smell.
It is illegal to sell counterfeits, and Instagram removes the pages of anyone who tries to sell designer fakes on their posts. But people like Candy get around this by making new accounts as soon as their last one is closed down and the appetite for people wanting designer knock-offs is continually growing.
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Gemma Collins was caught buying fake designer clothes on ‘counterfeit street’ in Manchester
Credit: Sara Lain
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Candy, a popular replica Instagram account, is selling the Chloe small Nile bag for £155 in a range of colours including black, tan, ivory, pastel pink and light blue
Credit: Instagram
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Buyers gush about the quality of the products, with the logo, leather and hardware being near-impossible to tell apart from the real deal
Credit: Instagram
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The real Louis Vuitton Capucines bag, left, retails for £4,050, while the dupe, right, is a fifth of the price
Credit: LouisVuitton/Instagram
This week even TOWIE star Gemma Collins – who has a reported net worth of £2.7 million- was spotted picking up fake Fendi and Givenchy items in a lockup on Manchester’s Bury New Road (also know as Counterfeit Street).
But instead of having stores, like that visited Gemma, these online sellers tell their trusted customers their new details via WhatsApp, and then the tight-knit community of regular buyers (there are 11,000 RepLadies on Reddit) share the new account details with each other.
In 2016, a report on fakes on Instagram found that one fifth of 750,000 posts about top fashion brands feature counterfeit and/or illicit products.The report’s author Andrea Stroppa – who identified 20,892 Instagram accounts selling fakes – says this is still a big issue.
“It’s very difficult to stop them,” he says. “The internet is a great tool for counterfeiters. They go where the potential buyers are. Instagram is the best social network for selling products because it’s so visual.”
His report found that the most popular fake goods are Chanel, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Fendi and Gucci. As the world of luxury e-commerce rises (this year, global digital sales for women’s luxury fashion are expected to reach $12 billion), so too does the dark underworld of fakes.
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One seller has 16.5k followers and knock-off brands include Louboutin, Marc Jacobs, Dior and Gucci
Credit: Instagram
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Top-selling replicas include Gucci slippers and bags, plus Louis Vuitton holdalls
Credit: Instagram
Major counterfeit selling accounts can have thousands of followers. For example, one ‘luxury bag’ retailer has 16.5k followers who can buy knock-off Marc Jacobs, Dior and Gucci, while a China-based account – that is selling a £1,925 YSL clutch bag for $263 (£187) – has 5,706.
But others, like a US-based seller, an account that specialise in ‘Louis Vuitton’ and ‘Chanel’ bags, have less than 1,000 – typically because their last page was shut down and they’ve just started again.
Many of the sellers are based in the US, while others are in Russia or Asia (the countries where most of these counterfeits are made), but they all ship to the UK. One buyer said she got her £96 ‘Chanel’ purse delivered to the UK in six days after she found the seller on Instagram and transferred the money via PayPal.
“I am SO happy with my first ever [replica] experience!!” she wrote on Reddit, recommending the seller, who has 9,000 followers on her private Instagram.
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Many of the sellers are based in America, while others are in Russia or Asia, but they all ship to the UK
Credit: Instagram
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A happy shopper described their replica Gucci bag as ‘so beautiful’
Credit: Instagram
Sellers’ profiles all look the same. They have their phone numbers in their bios for WhatsApp or WeChat (a popular messaging service in China), and use language like ‘1:1’, ‘AAA’ or ‘mirror quality’ to signal that they’re selling top-quality fakes. They also tend to use hashtags like #replica (which is slightly less obvious than ‘fake’ or ‘counterfeit’), and brand hashtags like #Gucci and #Chanel.
But some sellers are bots – or automated accounts. These have been created by larger organisations who sell fakes on a widespread level. As there is less individual interaction with these bots, people on Instagram can sometimes end up accidentally buying fakes from them.
“There are many fakes bought accidentally on Instagram,” explains Sabrina Sadiq, who has authenticated 10,000 handbags in her time, and now runs website Luxury Promise. “It’s because many people don’t have the trained eye to spot fakes.” She has many clients who have previously been tricked into buying designer bags, and then were left unable to return them.
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One replica retailer is selling a £1,925 YSL clutch bag for $263 (£187)
Credit: Instagram
From a consumers point of view, it seems like a no-brainer to buy fakes. It might be illegal, but morally it’s a grey area – especially when you get a designer bag that looks and feels like the real deal, but cost just a fraction of the price. It’s even socially acceptable to carry fakes.
But, there are downsides. Some fakes can be made with flammable material that hasn’t passed safety checks, or toxic materials like lead. These concerns are particularly worrying when people are buying fake makeup or beauty products. But Sadiq also warns: “You could have bought a handbag from a child who has been trafficked away from its parents.”
So what can be done to get rid of the designer fakes online? Instagram said: “If someone believes their intellectual property is being infringed, we urge them to let us immediately know via our reporting tools so that the matter can be resolved.” The app also deleted a number of the accounts that Fabulous discovered for this article.
Faking it: How to tell a fake bag from the real deal on Instagram
Tips from authenticator and founder of Luxury Promises Sabrina Sadiq:
1) Check if the Instagram reseller account has a website, and check the contact page. Be wary of websites that do not have an office (registered company), phone or email available, because you’ll have no form of protection. If you’re unsure, research them and try to read reviews online.
2) Check the resellers’ method of payment. PayPal is a safe way for a client use for an online purchase – rather than wiring them money.
3) Don’t just rely on images. The photo on Instagram might be a real bag, but that doesn’t mean it’s the one they’re going to send you.
4) The price is always important. If it’s too good to be true then it usually is. There’s no way you would be buying a real Chanel classic flap bag for £100.
5) Before purchasing always ask for more pictures of the serial number, hardware, stitching and receipt if it has one. Prior to purchasing you can pay for an expert to give you an opinion as to whether it’s real. Or alternatively you can email Luxury Promise for a free expert opinion or read our free authentication guides to give you some tips.
But Stroppa thinks that isn’t enough – he thinks Instagram should work with designers. A suggestion he has is for designers to hire people to moderate the use of their hashtags. For example Gucci could have staff checking every use of #Gucci to see if it’s linked to a fake goods account. If they had a “real-time channel with Instagram”, the app could block and investigate them.
Some brands are already doing this alone. Christian Louboutin, whose famous red-soled shoes are prime fake targets, has set up a ‘Stop Fakes’ campaign where they monitor social media to find counterfeit sellers, and “take them down.”
It’s a good idea, but it still made a dent on the fake business – or its happy customers. On Candy’s Instagram page, she has screenshots from customers thanking her. “I love, love my items!” they say. “Thank you so much – I’ll be ordering more, for sure.”
And until these customers stop asking for more Chloe bags and Chanel sliders, people like Candy will keep on selling them – no matter how many times their accounts are shut down.
Meanwhile, these high-street bags are fraction of the price of luxury versions – so can YOU tell the difference?
And, Primark is selling a similar £9 version of this Gucci handbag… but it’s £4,771 cheaper.
Model Gigi Hadid walks the catwalk for various designers at New York Fashion Week
